When it comes down to it, life was a combination of genetics and luck. Itachi had the genetics, but his luck was shit.
"Ah little Itachi, what brings you to my humble lab this early in the morning?" Young Itachi was adorable, especially in contrast to the killer he would become.
"Hi, Shiro-san." Itachi curiously looked around the room, his eyes lingering on my gold-bordered rule board for a moment longer than the rest of the room.
"Ah, I see your mother dropped by." I felt Mikoto's chakra, along with mom's and Asano. They seemed relaxed, so I figured I would just hide in the basement and avoid human interaction.
Itachi nodded and wandered around the room earning a raised eyebrow from me.
"Is there anything you want to learn about?" Itachi just shrugged, causing me to quirk my lips into a small smile. "How about medical ninjutsu?"
I waved my hand, using chakra strings to grab some books from around the room causing them to fly over and neatly stack themselves beside an amazed Itachi.
"I'll show you some exercises and then we'll get into theory." Practice while you learn and you will be a master in no-time. "From there we will get into the mystical palm."
Itachi didn't look overly enthused but nodded his head and pushed a chair over to the desk. He took a seat and stared expectantly at me.
"Alright, let's do this the fun way..." I went through a few hand-signs placing Itachi under a Genjutsu.
Teaching was easy when I could impart my own experiences directly onto someone's brain. Itachi would hopefully see the value in learning Medical Ninjutsu and would continue to learn it without me.
I could hope at least...
...
Minato seemed satisfied with the genetic modifications made to the children. They were already showing tremendous improvement in terms of chakra and physical fitness.
They only seemed to lack motivation, though that was normal for children. After all, who wanted to train when you could be playing with your friends?
"So, can I get onto making super babies?" The changes would take better in the babies. This is where Konoha's true powerhouses would come from.
Minato shook his head.
"The children are doing fine, why don't we just focus on making already developing children better?"
I stared at him, with what was probably more hostility then one should have when staring at a Kage.
"A child born with the best genes will be much stronger than a child given good genes at a later date." I was beyond annoyed that we were even talking about this.
Minato seemed to be hesitant to commit, even after the hours of talking about what we were doing.
"I think we should continue strengthening talented children instead of creating new ones." I stared into his eyes, briefly scanning his thoughts.
Minato had some moral hang-ups. He didn't want to bring children into the world just for military strength. Making children for the express purpose of war was pointlessly cruel in his opinion.
"I disagree." I continued meeting his eyes, skimming his thoughts.
Minato shook his head.
"It's not a suggestion." His eyes turned serious, and his chakra spilled out of him.
I met his eyes and released my chakra, causing a white glow to surround my body. Minato and I stared at each other, our posture relaxed and deceptively calm.
Our chakra visibly raged around us, Minato's blue and mine white. We continued our pointless posturing for a moment longer before we reeled our chakra in near simultaneously.
The door opened breaking the tense atmosphere. An Anbu peeked through the door and looked at Minato who dismissed him with a wave.
I smirked at the scene feeling a little better, if not any less annoyed.
"It's clear you don't feel that what we are doing is right." I rolled my shoulders trying to rid myself of my tenseness. "Let's just call the whole thing off, Konoha can become stronger in other ways."
Minato nodded with a thankful smile. Likely pleased that I was on the same page as him.
"Yes. That was what I wanted to do in the first place."
I nodded amicably.
"No worries, I'll think of other ways to make Konoha better."
Minato smiled and waved me off. I bowed and made my way out of the room feeling slightly bitter.
Minato was worried I was going too far and was close to putting me under surveillance. He didn't trust me not to go too far and was already slightly unwilling to modify his own soldiers.
I honestly just wanted to make Konoha better, but it seems to have backfired. Now I had to keep an eye on Minato and make sure he wasn't going to oust me from the village due to his weird morals.
I'd seen the man gut tens of children but making some super babies was too much for him...
Fuck...
...
With Minato putting the kibosh on my plan to make super orphans, I was cursing around Konoha looking for something to do to keep myself from falling into boredom-induced despair.
"How's it going?" I smirked when Rin turned towards me Kunai in hand.
She shook her head, pocketing the Kunai.
"Hi, Shiro."
"Hello." I returned her greeting with a small wave. "What kind of training are you doing today?"
The craters covering the clearing made what she was doing clear. But it was nice to make polite conversations now and then.
"I'm trying to develop a Taijutsu using my Chakra Enhanced Strength." I gestured to the holes around various parts of the clearing.
"Chakra Enhanced Strength shouldn't be the main part of your arsenal, more of a surprise move."
Rin blinked.
"If people knew how hard I can hit, they wouldn't let me hit them..." Rin came to an understanding of her own.
I nodded approvingly.
"That's Tsunade's greatest fault in her own style." All you had to do to beat her was dance around her hits. "If you focus on speed and quick strikes, it might work out better for you."
Especially because she lacked Tsunade's monstrous natural strength.
"Do whatever you feel is right, it is just a suggestion." Rin nodded, though she didn't look particularly convinced.
Yawn*
I yawned and made my way over to a tree, so I could perch myself on it and watch my favorite Kohai for awhile.
Life was boring, but not for long. There would be more stuff to do soon...
...
The Hiraishin was pretty interesting as far as teleportation went. The user would make a 'network' restricted to their chakra frequency and bounce around the network using seals that mark their landing location.
There was a limit to how many seals the network had, but not to how far away the seals were from each other.
To use the Hiraishin effectively in combat you need to specialize in a specific fighting style, have a specific kind of knowledge on seals, a good amount of chakra and control, and amazing agility and reflexes along with a good sensing range.
I had most of those and could probably use it, but not as effectively as Minato did. Minato trained for a good part of his life to be able to use it as he did, and I wasn't willing to put in the time to do the same.
I only wanted to get to the moon, so my use of the technique could be unrefined and slower. Though it did make me wonder why the Third and Jiraiya or even Orochimaru didn't make use of the technique.
They theoretically had what it took to use the technique, but didn't learn it. The Third was the biggest disappointment as he was considered legendary due to his skill and knowledge but couldn't use the Hiraishin. It makes me wonder if there was a lot of propaganda about the Third and if his skills were greatly exaugurated.
"If even one person learned how to do it at a fraction of the proficiency that Minato did, it would be priceless." Both in war and during peacetimes. "Save that guy for pure transportation purposes and move squads across the continent instantly and in a nearly untraceable manner."
I turned to my Clone who seemed equally as disappointed by the Hiraishin's lack of use.
"Maybe Hiruzen just didn't want to adapt it to his style, that I'm sure he's perfected at this point?" My Clone shrugged. "Maybe he wasn't as knowledgeable about Fuinjutsu, just Ninjutsu, and Genjutsu?"
Kishimoto was vague with his backstory, you could interpret it any way you wanted, depending on what you need.
"Maybe there's nobody who has the right qualities to use it in combat like Minato or even Tobirama." I added, including myself in the nobody category.
Still, having someone capable of using it at all would be invaluable. If they took a jonin and said 'listen up, the rest of your life is learning this and being a pack mule.' It would be worth it.
And even if he took years to accomplish one teleportation every 5 minutes, that would be more valuable than whatever else he would be doing.
"Minato isn't even the inventor of the technique, which is weird." I had been under the impression that Minato made the technique. The fact that Minato just learned it but didn't invent it made him less badass in my opinion.
I rubbed my forehead, feeling more tired than usual.
"The Hiraishin is both interesting and disappointing." My Clone nodded in agreement, tossing a scroll at me.
I caught it and unfurled it, finding the Clones notes on the technique.
"So, I just need to adjust it to my size and chakra..." I eyed the part that warned about accounting for growth. If I got taller and teleported with an old seal, I could behead myself.
I turned my eyes to the Clone, wondering how it figured that out. The Clone looked away, seemingly embarrassed.
"Fuck." Both because of the penitential beheading, and because the Hiraishin was severely underused.
For most of the story, the Flying Thunder God is Minato's signature technique, catapulting him to fame as a one-man war machine and eventually Fourth Hokage.
It begs the question of why the village didn't go out of its way to make sure more people knew it
"Might as well chalk it up to Hiruzen being an idiot." I turned eyes towards the wall, breaking the mental connection the Clone made.
"Do you think Naruto would be able to use the Hiraishin?" I ran the idea through my mind and found myself liking it. Naruto would have similar chakra to that of his father, he might be able to use the seal without any changes.
"Probably." The Clone nodded, likely reaching the same conclusion. "We can give it to him and see what happens."
I smiled, liking the chaotic idea.
"We'll see." My clone nodded and went back to staring at Minato's kunai.
I threw my hands behind my head and leaned back into my chair. The clone would do the hard work and adjust the Hiraishin to our current body type.
I would bumble through life like I usually did.
...
Thud*
"I need you to go buy another apartment building." With a puff of smoke, a stack of papers was unsealed and dropped onto the table with a satisfying thud.
Mom stared at me, Asano stared at me, and Isami who was for some reason having breakfast with my mother also stared at me.
"Why can't you do it?" Mom pushed the papers closer to me, looking slightly annoyed.
I didn't want to have all my wealth under my name in case I got kicked out of the village. I didn't want them to take everything if I was forced to flee.
"Having everything under my name is bad for tax purposes." I nodded sagely.
Mom blew out a frustrated breath and dragged the papers closer to herself.
"That's not in a good part of Konoha." She flipped through the stack of papers, while Isami and Asano silently watched out exchange from the side.
"The threat of death can make that a good part of Konoha." I smiled toothily, causing Isami and Asano to flinch and mom to roll her eyes.
"The filth there have connections to ninja, they won't take too kindly if you mess up the fragile peace that the gangs have." It was my turn to roll my eyes.
Weeding out some gangs would be good for Konoha.
"I'll find somewhere better then." I wasn't too interested in cleaning up the gangs though. It wasn't my job to keep Konoha gang free...
It was likely that they were monitored and controlled. Interfering would earn unwanted attention, which I didn't need due to my already shady activities.
"What brings you to my humble abode?" I directed my focus to Isami, who had been watching silently. "Not that I don't enjoy your company or anything."
Isami blinked at me and looked away.
"Someone put in a mission request for Gai." She turned back to me, meeting my eyes. "Gai sent me to collect you, so we can have a 'youthful' adventure."
The word youthful just wasn't the same when people other then Gai and Duy used it.
"Sure, where are we going and when do we meet up?"
Isami gestured towards the South.
"We're transferring highly classified documents. We meet tomorrow at eight." She continued gesturing to the South gate. "Pack lightly."
Classified documents...
That didn't sound fun.
"I'll see you tomorrow then." Isami nodded.
I shrugged and headed towards the basement. I had to power up the clone and make another flesh clone.
I needed to get started on mutating the Byakugan, and other assorted Hyuga genes. I might as well optimize my bloodline as best as I could. I had free time now that I wasn't creating super children anyways...
...
Gai did his nice guy pose, a thumbs up, wink, and a winning smile. I joined him, in a pose of my own, blinding Isami with the sun that reflected off my teeth.
The gate guards stared at us, unsure of what to make of the situation.
"Alright, now that we're sufficiently youthful it's time to set off." I rolled my shoulders and passed through the gate.
Isami and Gai joined me a moment later, and the three of us walked side by side.
"So where are we headed?" I knew we were lugging some classified documents South. But that was the extent of what I knew about the mission.
"We are heading to Keishi to deliver some documents to the Daimyō." Isami shrugged as she spoke.
That didn't sound all that fun.
"Neat." I held back the yawn that threatened to spill from my mouth.
Gai might be attracting attention, the Daimyō might be interested in meeting one of Konoha's upcoming ninja. Or so I'd like to think.
In reality, the Daimyō was a waste of a human and not very smart according to rumors. It might just be a simple whim to request Gai for the mission.
"Is there anything we need to look out for?"
Gai quickly shook his head.
"We must be sure to maintain our Youthfulness during our travels!"
I nodded seriously.
"Indeed."
Isami shook her head and sped up, breaking into a run.
Apparently, the talking part of the mission was over, now it was time to get down to business. Gai and I started running as well, easily keeping pace with Isami.
Hopefully, the mission wouldn't be too bad. I'd get to see the capital if nothing else.
...